For many years, protectors have been secured to the edges, corners and other surfaces of manufactured articles such as appliances, electronic articles and doors to protect the edges, corners and other surfaces of such articles from damage during handling and shipment.
A type of edge and corner protector assembly currently in use comprises a panel including a paper honeycomb core disposed between face sheets. The panel is supplied to the manufacturer of the articles to be packaged in flat form. The panel is folded by the manufacturer along crush scores or the like formed in the honeycomb core, then taped, glued, stapled, or otherwise coupled together so that the protector remains folded and is then applied to the edges or corners of the articles to be shipped.
A problem associated with this corner protector is that the honeycomb core is crushed or slitted to form the fold lines about which the panel is folded. The crushing and slitting of the core can weaken the honeycomb core and protector structure in the region of the corner of such protector thus increasing the likelihood of damage to the article being shipped from a direct impact at the edge or corner of the protector.
Published French Patent Application No. 2-690-870 to Societe Anonyme dite RLG Concepts discloses another type of edge and corner protector comprising a panel (FIGS. 3 and 4) including a paper honeycomb core disposed between face sheets which is supplied to the manufacturer of the articles to be folded in its folded form. Although the honeycomb core in the corner is not crushed or slitted, the disadvantage of this corner protector is that it must be manufactured, supplied and sold in its folded form.
The manufacture of this corner protector requires the design of expensive, custom machinery that will need to first fold the honeycomb core and then apply folded face sheets to the top and bottom surfaces of the honeycomb core. Moreover, these corner protectors are more difficult to package and transport because they are supplied in their folded form.
The present invention solves these problems by providing a honeycomb protector that can be supplied to the manufacturer of the articles to be packaged in flat form. The protector includes fold lines that are formed without crushing or slitting the honeycomb core so as to provide a foldable honeycomb protector with an impact resistant corner where the honeycomb core has the same rigidity and strength characteristics as the honeycomb core in the other regions of the honeycomb protector.